How Your Diet May Be Shrinking Your Brain

You might want to rethink that next cola and hamburger as these foods may be shrinking your brain. New research in the online journal BMC Medicine found that the Standard American Diet (SAD) can cause shrinkage of a part of the brain known as the left hippocampus. While poor dietary choices have been linked to many health concerns including: heart disease, cancer, diabetes and others, this study is the first human study to link poor diet to brain shrinkage of the hippocampus. The left hippocampus is a portion of the brain involved in memory, learning, mood regulation and depression in particular. Since this is the first part of the brain to deteriorate in Alzheimer’s disease , this study is significant to our understanding of causal factors for this serious disease as well. The study analyzed 2551 Australians between the ages of 60 and 64 at the outset of the study who par...